1. Field
The following description relates to an induction heating cooker and a control method thereof that heats a container regardless of where the container is placed on a cooking plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an induction heating cooker is a device that supplies high-frequency current to a heating coil to generate a strong high-frequency magnetic field and generates eddy current in a cooking container (hereinafter, referred to as a container) magnetically coupled to the heating coil using the magnetic field to heat the container using Joule heat generated by the eddy current, thereby cooking food.
An induction heating cooker includes a plurality of heating coils fixedly mounted in a main body forming the external appearance thereof to provide a heat source. Also, a cooking plate, on which a container is placed, is disposed at the top of the main body. Container lines are formed at positions of the cooking plate corresponding to the heating coils. The container lines serve to guide positions on which a user places a container to cook food.
When food is cooked using the conventional induction heating cooker, however, a user may have trouble correctly placing a container on the cooking plate at a corresponding one of the container lines so that cooking (i.e. heating of the container) is effectively performed. That is, if the user places the container at a position deviating from the container lines, cooking may not be properly performed.
In recent years, an induction heating cooker has been developed wherein a large number of heating coils is disposed below a cooking plate over the entire surface of the cooking plate so that cooking is effectively performed regardless of where a container is placed on the cooking plate.
In the aforementioned induction heating cooker, however, a container may partially occupy the heating coils when the container is placed on the cooking plate. When the induction heating cooker recognizes the container partially occupying the heating coils, the distinction between the case in which the container partially occupies the heating coils and a case in which no container is placed on the cooking plate may not be clearly made due to the lack of occupation percentage.